Far Alone
by batgirl651
Summary: Moving to the huge city of Gotham was never in Danielle's plans, but it seems like her Dad's job has other ideas. As much as she doesn't want to go, Danielle must make the move and settle into her new life as a Gothamite. She had hoped to have a relatively normal, new life, but it looks like fate has something else planned for her and her parents.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! So, I'm a first time writer and I decided to peruse a story line that I've been dreaming up for a while. I have to apologize because I feel that the beginning if the story is a little slow, but I promise you that i gets a lot better. I also have the next few chapters done, so if people are super excited to see what happens next, I'll post them today. Thanks, and happy reading!

June 13th, 2012

"Common, Danielle. It's not every day you get to move to a new city. Treat this as an opportunity to have a life changing adventure." Danielle's mom, Susan, said as she viewed her daughter in the rearview mirror. Slumped in the back seat of their small car sat 14-year-old Danielle Lott. Sighing, she sat up in her seat and gazed out the window at the passing buildings that towered high up into the shy.

Her dad glanced back at her and shook his head disapprovingly, "Danielle, stop pouting. Gotham will be a great place to live. You'll be able to make new friends, try new things…."

"Get shot." Danielle mumbled under her breath. She huffed out a large breath and blew her blonde hair out of her face. More and more she was dreading moving to the big city and abandoning her calm, country side lifestyle.

"That's enough!" Her Dad scolded, "You know that it wasn't our choice to have our lives uprooted and make a complete lifestyle change. Do you think your Mother and I wanted to move away? We have friends that we had to leave behind too." He sighed again, "Look, I know you miss your friends, and I know changing schools is hard, especially since it's your first year in High School, but you've got to understand, we're doing this for you…. I think we all just need a good night rest after this long drive." Her Dad said less harshly, his scowl softening.

Danielle just rolled her eyes and put her headphones in as she continued to stare out the window at the people and buildings passing by. In the background of her music, she could faintly hear her parents still arguing, but she just cranked up the volume on her music and ignored them. As far as she was concerned, she had sacrificed the most for her father's new job. She enjoyed the little things in life, like peace and quiet, and everyone always being kind and friendly. Now, she'd be lucky to get a moments rest with all the cars going by, and don't get her started on all the unfriendly people that were in Gotham. There was a slight upside though. Their new apartment complex was a short distance from downtown and had a beautiful view of the heart of Gotham and Wayne Tower. Among all the giant sky scrapers, Wayne Tower stood above them all shining like a beacon of light for all of Gotham to follow. It was truly a beautiful sight, and Danielle would have the perfect view of it all.

Their new place was on the 10th floor of some old building. "Essex Apartments: Luxury living at a reasonable cost". She scoffed, from what she read online, Essex Apartments was in the shifty part of town and has a three-star rating. With her luck, it'd be infested with cockroaches and bedbugs. She'd just have to make the best of it cause there there's no going back now.

"Well, we're here" Her Dad said as he pulled up to the complex and put the car in park.

"Tom, are you sure?" Her Mom enquired, "This certainly doesn't look as nice as it did in the pictures." She said skeptically. The old brick building looked beaten by weather and had graffiti on the sides of the stairs leading up to the doorway. Old newspapers and litter was strewn along the sidewalk and up against the building.

Danielle looked out the window at the front of the building and read the plaque above the double doors, "Essex Apartments," She read aloud, "this is the place. Plus, the movers are right there."

Her Dad sighed and looked over to his wife and then back at Danielle. After a few second pause, he turned off the engine and opens his door to get out of the car. Pursing her lips, Danielle's mom turned to her and offered an anxious smile. "Well," She sighed, "We might as well get out and help your father unpack… Common, let get started." Her mom said as she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened her car door, Danielle doing the same shortly after.

The first thing Danielle noticed after she opened her door was the smell. It was a combination of gasoline and the smell you get if you forget your clothes in the washer for a few days. In other words, not pleasant.

After getting past the "wonderful" smell of Gotham, Danielle decided to help her parents unload their things from the moving truck. Luckily for her, her parents decided to leave the heavy lifting to the movers and sent her up to their apartment to open it up.

Grabbing the keys from her Dad's hand, Danielle walked up the warn down front steps and inside the complex. Walking past the front desk that was currently vacant, she headed towards the elevator and pressed the button to call it down. After waiting patiently for what seemed like forever, the elevator arrived with a soft "ding" and she stepped inside, punching the "10" button. With a scraping sound, the doors closed tight and the old elevator took off with a rumble.

With the same metal on metal sound, the doors opened up on the 10th floor. Exiting the elevator with the same determination she had before, she walked down the hall to room 1026. With crossed fingers, she opened the door to their new home, praying that it wasn't already occupied by any creepy crawlies. Slowly, she put the key into the lock and gave it a turn. Hearing the sound of the tumblers falling into place, she sucked in a breath and turned the door handle.

A thankful sigh escaped her mouth when no foul insects could be found. What she did find however, was a brightly lit, large living room with three big windows in front of her, a kitchen to her left, and a hallway with three doors to her right. Surprisingly, the walls and floors were clean, and the carpet looked like after a little TLC, it's be as good as (slightly) new! She was so impressed that she didn't even notice the person coming up behind her.

"Oh wow!" Her Dad said cheerfully from behind her and laid a hand on her shoulder. She quickly tensed up and let out a scared squeak. "It doesn't look so bad after all!" Her Mom added in.

Her Dad chuckled and patted her patted her back. "Did I scare ya kid?" He asked happily.

"I'll admit that _I_ was scared for a while. The outside looked far from what we were expecting, but the inside is just perfect!" Her Mother said happily.

Danielle offered a smile to her parents and decided that maybe this place wouldn't be so bad after all. She broke away from her parent's conversation to explore the two bedrooms. She decided to check out the room on the left side of the hall first, since it offered a better view of downtown than the other room did. Once she opened the door, she stopped dead in her tracks. The room was beautiful; hard wood floors and pure white walls with a small closet to the left of the door way. There were two windows, one on the North wall and one the East. Although the floor desperately need to be mopped and polished, the rest of the room was absolutely beautiful.

She rushed to the windows and was blown away by the view. There were defiantly some perks of being on the top floor. Danielle noted that the fire escape was right underneath the North window.

Stopping momentarily, she waited to see if her parents were still occupied and then quietly unlocked the North window. She grunted as she pulled up on the window. It must not have been opened in a long time because as she opened it, it made a loud squealing sound.

Danielle froze, cringing. She waited to see if her parents had caught on to what she was doing, but when they continued discussing their plans on where to put the sofa and the TV, she continued. Once she opened the window all the way, she stuck her head out and took a look around. Surprisingly, the fire escape had a ladder that lead to the roof. Her curiosity got the better of her as she slipped out of the window completely and on to the fire escape. The old iron structure creaked under her full weight, but stayed standing.

Danielle decided to look over the edge of the platform to the alley below. She gazed down at the dizzying drop below her.

Deciding she had enough of that, she turned her eyes to the rusty ladder in front of her. She paused momentarily to weigh the amount of trouble she could get into by climbing on to the roof of their new apartment complex. She was about to climb back inside when her Mother's words rang through her head. Her Mom was right, she needed to make an adventure out of this, and so with one last glance into her room from the fire escape, Danielle started up the ladder.

She was surprised to discover that the roof was actually a few feet below where the brick wall and ladder ended. Once she reached the top she dropped down on to the actual roof and landed in a crouch. Looking up from where she landed, she instantly noticed the boot prints that were absolutely everywhere.

For a long moment she was confused. 'Why are people running around up here. Maybe it's maintenance workers?' She quickly discarded that idea since there aren't any appliances on top of the roof. She contemplated the source of the footprints for a few more moments, because, quite frankly, who would find entertainment in running around on the roof of some old apartment complex?

Deciding that she should probably go back inside before her parents discover her absence, she walked back over to the ledge of the roof. Clambering back over the side of the building, she slid her foot around in search of the ladder. Once her foot was firmly planted, she started her decent back down.

Quietly, she slipped back into her room and slid the window shut and locked it. Last thing she wanted was some for freak to climb through her window at night while she was asleep. She silently walked back into the living room to find her parents right where she left them, decorating their new living room as the movers continued to shuffle boxes inside the door.

Danielle decided that she didn't need to be part of the decoration committee and started to unpack some of her things. Looking through the mountains of boxes, she found the box that contained her computer, internet router, and her charger, and set off towards her new room. Once she was completely inside, she closed the door behind her and went to work setting up her computer.

Tearing open the box, she set aside her laptop and charger and pulled out her wireless router and plugged it in. Once the router was plugged in, she started up her laptop and connected it to the Wi-Fi. About 20 seconds from when she turned her computer on, her notifications started going crazy. All her friends from back home wanted to know how she was, if she missed them yet, if she had seen the "legendary" Batman and Robin yet.

Once she read that last notification, she froze once more. She had totally forgotten about the famed Batman and Robin that protected Gotham City. Could those footprints on the roof have been from them? It was certainly a possibility. She decided to look deeper into these vigilantes that protected Gotham City.

Opening up her web browser, she typed in "GOTHAM CITY BATMAN" and pressed search. Instantly, thousands of results came up. Web pages ranging from "Batman sighted!" to "Batman, a complete myth!".

Deciding to save all the news articles for later, Danielle clicked images and was instantly blown away. There were barely any results at all! All the pictures were either a blurry, black mass that you can hardly distinguish, or someone in a costume that was obviously fake. But that lead Danielle to question, who are the mysterious people running around on top of her roof?


	2. Chapter 2

Approx. Three weeks later:

Things in Danielle's life had started to settle down as her and her family adjusted to their new life in Gotham. Her Dad went off to work every day while her and her Mom stayed at home, doing random little things as the days went on. Since Danielle wasn't in school yet, she had a lot of free time on her hands. Her daily routine consisted of an 8:30 AM wake up, breakfast, and then absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. This morning was no different from the rest.

At exactly 8:30, Danielle's alarm went off with the same shrill, annoying beeping sound. Groaning, she turned over in bed, slinging her arm over her eyes to shield them from the morning sun. She started blindly reaching around for her alarm clock that was somewhere on her night stand. These early mornings were getting more and more difficult due to her late night stakeouts. She'd been getting around four to five hours of sleep each night. She viewed it as the price to pay to get a chance to Gotham's legends.

For the past few weeks, she'd been climbing on to the top of the roof every night. For many reasons of course: the view, the time alone, but what she really wanted, was to see the two caped crusaders. Ever since she discovered the boot prints on the roof, she'd been dead set on finding their source, which she believed came from Batman and Robin. For about a week and a half she'd been climbing up there, every night at 11:30, she'd venture out on to the top of the building and wait. It was taking a toll in her sleeping schedule and making her mornings more and more difficult.

It took her a good 45 seconds of aimlessly patting around her nightstand for her to find her alarm clock. Slowly sitting up, Danielle rubbed her heavy eyes and yawned. If she were to keep this up, she'd need to invest in a good coffee machine just to get through the mornings.

Deciding that she better get out of bed before her Dad leaves for work, Danielle threw off the covers and shuffled out of bed. Before she left her room, she grabbed her favorite grey hoodie off the floor and pulled it on over her t-shit. If this apartment had one thing, it was good air conditioning.

The moment she opened her bedroom door, the scent of fresh coffee and toast greeted her. She quickly closed the door and headed for the kitchen. Her bare feet pattered down the hallway of their apartment and on into the kitchen.

At the sound of their daughter entering the room, Danielle's Mom and Dad turned away from their current activities and offered her warm smiles. She gave a groggy smile back.

"Good morning Dan. How'd you sleep?" Her Mom inquired as she poured a cup of coffee and set it in front of her husband.

Pulling out a chair of her own and sitting down, she answered, "I slept good enough, I guess."

She could tell she looked like a wreck in the mornings and that her parents were getting suspicious. She'd rather have her parents thinking she wasn't sleeping well instead of them actually knowing that she stayed up for hours on end every night.

Her Dad looked at her with concern. After taking a sip of his coffee, he looked to his wife who was washing dishes at the sink. Receiving a nod, he turned back to his daughter and said, "Danielle, dear. Your mother and I are concerned that you may not be taking the move so well. We've noticed how tired you've been lately. If you need to talk to us, we are here. And if you don't feel comfortable talking to us, I'm sure we can find someone else for you to talk to."

At this, Danielle perked up. She didn't want her parents to know that she was spending her nights up on the roof, but she certainly didn't want them thinking that she had some psychological problem either!

"What?" she asked as she looked her Dad in the eyes. "No. No, no, no. I love it here!" Danielle said with wide eyes. "I've just been staying up late talking to friends and stuff. You guys don't need to worry, I honestly do like living here. I promise." she said with a smile.

Her Mom sighed and returned her daughters smile.

"Well," she said, "I'm glad you're adjusting sweetheart. Although your Father's job is important, you're our first priority." Her Mom said, sliding a plate with two pieces of toast on it in front of Danielle.

Taking a last sip from his coffee, Danielle's Dad got up and pushed in his chair.

"Well, that's all for me folks. Time to go to work." He said as he hugged Danielle from behind and kissed her on the top of the head. Walking to the other side of the table, he did the same to his wife before he picked up his phone and car keys, waved goodbye, and was out the door.

Taking a big bite of her toast, Danielle got up and put her plate in the sink and pushed her chair in.

"Hey Mom, I'm gonna head back to my room, ok?" she stated more than asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure." She said with a tinge of disappointment. "Are you sure you're adjusting well? You seem to be spending a lot of time in your room." She replied.

"Don't worry, Mom. I'm just gonna go video chat with some friends. Zoe got her braces off and I wanna see how she looks." Danielle replied over her shoulder as she walked down the hall towards her room.

"Ok," her Mom said with a little sadness in her voice, but Danielle was already to her room and had gone inside. Her Mom had hoped to spend some time with her daughter now that she was able to. She had to give up her job since they were moving to Gotham. She'd have to find new employment soon. Deciding that it wasn't something that was worth causing conflict about, she turned back to the sink and continued washing dishes.

Danielle felt bad about not spending time with her parents, but she had other things to do at the moment. She had made a habit of spending a lot of time on the computer reading up about a certain pair of vigilantes.

Apparently, there was more than just Batman and Robin. There was also an older hero named Nightwing who is said to appear in Gotham from time to time but is most frequently spotted in Bludhaven. It's speculated that Nightwing was the original Robin, but out grew the role and was replaced by the current Robin. There was also a bunch of other theories on this site that Danielle was on, but that was the most plausible one.

Most of Danielle's free time was spent reading and searching about these heroes. It had honestly had become a bit of an obsession to her.

She couldn't help herself. It intrigued her too much for her to just ignore it. Along with all her "research", she had set a goal. She wanted to be the first person to actually get a picture of The Batman. Of course there some pictures out there, but they were all too blurry to actually distinguish what was in the picture. That's why she wanted to be the first to actually see Batman and Robin and not get her face punched in by them, hopefully.

The rest of Danielle's day passed pretty slowly. Her and her Mom went out for lunch, her Dad came home and they ate dinner, and at 10:30, they all went to bed.

Once she finished brushing her teeth, she went into her parent's room to tell them goodnight. Slowly she opened the door and peeked inside. Sitting up in bed were her Mother and Father who she loved so dearly. Both had a book in hand and her Dad had to peer over his reading glasses to see her in the doorway.

Smiling, she opened the door a little more and peered further inside.

"Goodnight you guys," she said smiling. "See ya in the mornin'."

"Night sweetheart." Her Mom said. "Maybe tomorrow sometime we could go out shopping or go down town. Just to get out of the house." She said, giving the same warm smile she always gave her daughter.

"Sure, Mom." She said before looking to her Dad.

"Night Daddy." Danielle said with a gushy tone of voice. He put his book down and gave a thin smile. "Night Dan." He replied. She was expecting a much more loving reply, but brushed it off to a long day at work. She had noticed that he came home without his suit jacket, he must have left it at the office.

She smiled once more to each parent and quietly closed the door. Softly, she walked to her room and closed the door, locking it once she was inside. She flopped down onto her bed and opened up her laptop. She had an hour to kill so she decided listening to music would ease the wait.

Once her playlist came to an end, she checked her clock and noticed that it was 11:28. It was time! She closed her laptop and climbed out of bed. She started walking over to her night stand and picked up her hoodie and her old baby monitors. Her parents had kept most of her baby stuff, but she never thought she'd have a reason to use any of it again. Placing the monitor that had the microphone by her door, she turned it on and checked to make sure the door was locked.

Her plan was fool proof. If her parents came to her door, she'd hear it through the monitor and know that she had to get her butt back in her room. Genius, right?

Unlocking and opening the window that she recently fixed to get rid of that squeaky sound, she headed out onto the fire escape. Sliding the baby monitor into her hoodie's pocket, she tucked some blonde strands of hair behind her ear, and started up the ladder. Once on top, she quietly lowered herself down and headed over to the spot where she set up her "base camp".

She'd created a pretty sweet set up. She had an old blanket in case it got cold, an alarm clock to wake her up in the off chance she fell asleep up there, and of course, a camera.

The last few days, however, her attention has been focused elsewhere. For about four days, a black van has been creeping past the apartment at exactly 11:45 each night. It wasn't an old creeper looking van, more like a FBI stakeout van. That made her wonder even more, could this van be attached the footprints on the roof? What if someone in her complex was The Batman!

She discarded that last theory, because the Batman obviously had a good source of income to be able to afford all his cool gadgets, so why would he be living in this part of town? It still made her wonder, why would the FBI, or whoever it was, be spying on her apartment complex?

Usually the van would drive by at 11:45, but tonight it was already there, parked across the street from her complex. This peaked Danielle's curiosity. A new development had arisen! Now she just needed to know why the van decided to stop tonight. From what she could see, there was no driver or passenger. It was hard to tell though, the windows were so tinted.

Danielle walked over to the side of the building that faces the street and stopped. She grabbed the baby monitor out of her hoodie and turned the volume all the way up. Sighing, Danielle crossed her arms and leaned up against the wall. Taking a deep dreath, she perched her chin on her hand and began to admire the beautiful Gotham skyline. If there was something she could not get used to, it was the view. It was one of the most beautiful sights she ever saw. It was a strange feeling looking out over the sea of lights. All the people that were there, all living their own lives. It amazed her and scared her all at the same time.

She wondered where Batman and Robin were tonight. She gazed over the city in a daze, wondering. The two heroes had to be out there somewhere. Maybe tonight would be her lucky night.

Danielle was so deep in thought, she failed to notice the scraping noise as someone scaled the building across the street from her. Quietly, the figure clad in black, moved to a certain spot directly across from her.

Loud static rang through the mans' ear piece.

"Don, you in position?" came a dry, raspy voice through his communicator.

Touching the com link in his ear, Don quietly replied. "Yeah, just give me a sec. I'll get this little girl taken care of, and then we'll be good to go. Quick and easy with no witnesses." Don kneeled down on the roof top adjacent from Danielle.

"Alright, lets lock and load. The faster we get this done the better. God knows we don't want Bat problems." Scoffed the person on the other end of Don's com link. Slinging the case off his back, Don unloaded the high tech sniper rifle and started to assemble it. In a matter of seconds, the gun was put together and he was eyeing his target, the blonde 14 year old across the street. She was facing directly towards him, but with her head looking down the street.

"As soon as you hear the shot, enter the building. We've already got a few people in the building on the top floor, but we gotta make this quick. Like we went over, take what you can, if anyone puts up a struggle, kill em." He said coldly.

"Rodger." came an equally cold reply.

Squinting through the eye piece, Don viewed the small teen that had been regularly up on the roof of the Essex apartment complex, the latest target for Don and his crew. Unfortunately, this kid had made a nightly habit of staying up on the roof. It was obvious that she had become aware of his crew's van and their late night activates as well.

'Too bad.' Don thought as he placed his gloved finger softly on the trigger, 'She looks like a sweet kid. Oh well, can't start having a conscience now.' he thought to himself as he readied to pull the trigger that would end the young girls' life.

"Ready. Aim. Annnnd… Fire." The would be murderer spoke as he pulled down on the trigger. A fraction of a second before the gun sent the bullet slicing through the air, a well-aimed object forced the barrel of his assault rifle down from the girl's head to and now aligned it with her left shoulder.

Still, the defining shot rang out, roaring through the air like thunder. Along with the sound of the shot bullet, a young boys shout of warning sailed through the air. Sadly, his shout of caution was drowned out by the bullet moving at an incredible speed.


	3. Chapter 3

Danielle heard the noise before she felt any pain. In fact, she didn't feel any pain at all. All she felt was a numb, tugging sensation on her left shoulder as she laid on the rooftop, staring into the night sky. She could faintly hear more sounds of gunfire, but everything seemed as though she was hearing it under water.

Her mind screamed at her to try to move, to get back inside, to call for help, but she couldn't move at all. All she could do was lay there as her own blood soaked into her hair and clothes. Her once clean blonde hair was now bright red with blood.

She could hear the screams and shouts from the people inside the complex, but was utterly helpless to try and help anyone. Still, her mind told her to try with all her might, but slowly, her mind began to fog.

The baby monitor that was once in her hoodie pocket, now laid to the left of her head. Through the haze that started to settle in her mind, she could make out the sounds of loud knocking and her parents shouts. Her eyes flickered to her left as tears began to stream down her cheeks. Not because of the pain, no. Because as she was laying there, she could hear her parents screams.

Their shouts.

The loud bangs that echoed through the apartment as the front door was broken down.

Her Mother's pleading cries for the armed intruders to leave them in peace.

Her Dad confronting the robbers.

And finally, the gun shots that ended her Mothers screams and her Fathers protests. All she could do was lay there and cry as she bled out.

It didn't fully register in her mind what had just happened to her parents. Everything in her mind was slowly fading away as she laid on the cold roof top, gazing up into the night sky.

She couldn't tell how long shed been laying there. It felt like ages but in reality it couldn't have been more than a minutes. It was the longest minute in her life.

.

Across the way, young Jason had tried desperately to save the girl from getting shot, but it seemed that his actions were futile. Seconds after the bullet was shot, he saw the young girl fly backwards. He only hoped that she had gotten hit in a nonlethal spot.

Shortly after he disrupted the snipers shot, he went to his next objective: taking him down. With just a few simple moves, the guy was on the ground unconscious. Quick as he could, he radioed Batman and relayed the situation. As usual, Batman told him to stay put and not engage till he arrived, but he couldn't do that. Not knowing that the young girl across the street could be dead or dying.

With a look of determination, Robin shot his grapple gun and swung across the way the building that the young girl was on.

Landing with a tuck and a roll, the young bird sprang up and rushed to the girl that was lying in a pile on the ground. Kneeling down beside her, he propped her head up on his legs began to asses her condition. She was pale and looked dazed. He could see where the bullet hit her on her left shoulder. She was hit in a non-lethal spot, but would surely bleed out soon. She was cold, shivering in fact.

"Can you hear me?" He asked. Her eyes continued to stare into nothingness and he waited for a reply. He tried again, "Hey, you have to stay awake, ok. Helps on the way but you can't fall asleep, ok?" It took a few seconds, but the young girls hear slightly moved up and down.

"I know it's going to hurt, but I have to put some pressure on this or you'll bleed out." Robin said to prepare her as he reached into his utility belt and pulled out a thick piece of cloth.

Danielle could hear the voice speaking to her. It was distant, but she could tell that the person was right next to her. She tried her hardest to focus on the voice. After a few seconds, the echoing voice came through her mind. Understanding, put all her energy into nodding her head.

Firmly, Robin pressed the cloth into her shoulder. A small gasp came from the girl's mouth and was followed with a cringe. It surprised and worried Robin that he didn't get a bigger reaction to him applying pressure to her wound. Still, he continued to press on her shoulder in hopes to stop the bleeding.

Her vision was going in and out of focus, but she was determined to see who had come to her rescue. A small glimmer of hope sparked in her heart. She could tell it was a man's voice. Did her parents make it out alive? Tears of happiness streamed down her face. She didn't' lose everything, there was still hope! Trying with all the energy she had left, Danielle focused on the person that was above her. Her tears of joy completely stopped. She didn't know how to process what she was seeing.

Robin looked down and saw the girl had been crying. Feeling worried, he radioed Batman once more.

"Batman, where are you." He hissed.

"I'm almost there, Robin. There was an incident on King's Street that needed to be taken care of. I'll be there in under a minuet." Came the monotone reply. Robin sighed, he wanted to go inside and help but knew that if he left this girl that she would die, but how many people inside were dying now due to the lack of his presence. He knew by now not to disobey Batman's orders, and he learned that the hard way. He needed to focus on the task at hand, protecting and keeping this girl alive. Looking down, he could see her eyes moving and her breathing had increased. He took that as a good sign.

The sound of gun fire was gone and sirens could be heard in the distance. Hearing a scuffle, Robin looked to the left. Laying not far from them was a small object that looked like a walkie talkie. The sounds of glass breaking and a commotion were coming through the small device. He didn't know what to make of this, why would the small girl have this up on the roof? Why was she on the roof in the first place? From the looks of her, he guessed her age to be around 14 or 15, it was way past her bed time.

Looking around the rooftop, he could see that she also had a blanket, a camera, along with a few other things up here. The more he found, the more he wondered why she was up here.

A voice pulled him out of his deductions, "Robin, I'm here. Where are you?" Batman asked.

"I'm on the roof with the girl." Robin replied.

"Stay there," Batman ordered, "I'm going inside to assess the damage."

By the time the Bat got there, the police had arrived and were inside as well. Since there wasn't any more gun shots, Robin suspected that most of the perps had gotten away. Realization hit him and he quickly reached up to his com link.

"Batman, I took one of the guys down across the street on Warden Plaza. He's ready for Gordon's men to pick him up." Robin reported.

"Understood. I'll notify him."

Without replying, Robin went back to focusing on the girl. Her tears had dried and she had stopped shivering. She had, however, closed her eyes. Realizing the change in the situation, Robin started to speak to the girl.

"Hey, can you hear me?" He asked aloud. "You have to wake up." He said as he lightly shook the girl by her right shoulder. Robin was weary of her left shoulder but needed to wake her up. He reached his fingers up and checked her pulse and felt a wave of relief wash over him. Lucky, she was still alive, but a few more minutes without help would easily change that.

Suddenly, the maintenance door that sat in the center of the roof busted open. Gordon and his men flooded on to the roof, each with a gun in hand. Gordon made his way to the front of the group saw Robin sitting on his knees with the young girl head lying across them. Swiftly, Gordon rushed to the boy, kneeling beside the two.

"How is she?" Gordon asked as he eyed the girl. He could see the bullet hole in her left shoulder, and the blood covering Robin's hands. Her breath was shallow and she looked pale.

"She's lost a lot of blood. She needs to get to the hospital, now!" Robin said to the police chief.

"We've got this place locked down. I trust you can take her down to the ambulance?" Gordon said as he stood up. "Batman told us about the sniper on Warden. Montoya and Bullock are taking him into custody as we speak." He informed the young boy as he turned and faced his men.

In the back ground, Robin could hear Gordon giving orders to him med, but he was focused on getting the girl the help she needed. Carefully, he lifted her head up off his legs and got up from his sitting position. Placing an arm under her neck, and one behind her knees, he gently lifted her and began to walk towards the maintenance door.

It took him under a minuet to get to the ground floor from the 10th, but all the way down he made sure that the girl was comfortable. The entry way to the building was a complete disaster, papers everywhere, what little cheap furniture there was, was turned over and destroyed. The front doors were wide open with most of the glass broken out of them.

Stepping over the papers and broken glass, he walked to the front doors and towards the bright police lights. There had to be over 20 police cursers here, along with 10 ambulances.

The second he was out the door, Robin was bombarded by EMT's and paramedics. Before he could even explain the situation, the girl was ripped from his hands and taken to the closest ambulance. And just like that, she was gone from his view.

Robin stood there for a moment in shock. He didn't know to what extent the hit on the complex was, but guessing by the police helicopters in the sky and the abundance of squad cars here, it had to of been bad.

Silently, Batman came up behind his partner and laid a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, Jason met his mentors gaze.

"It's time to go home," Batman said to the young friend as he walked towards the Batmobile.

Shaking himself out of his daze, he reluctantly followed Batman away from all the chaos and mayhem at Essex Apartments.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Good evening, this is Gotham News at 9. I'm Summer Gleason.

Tragedy strikes Gotham today as a mass shooting leaves an entire apartment complex in ruin. An estimated 30 people were gunned down in their homes late last night as shooters ravaged the Essex Apartment complex at around 11: 30 PM.

The exact number of shooters is still unknown as mostr of them are still at large. An estimated 11 families were torn apart in the apartment wide hit. Names have since then been released to the press.

The list of deceased goes as follows; The Thompson family, the Smiths family, the George family, the Jones family, the Lott family, excluding their 14 year old daughter who is in the ICU. The Johnson family, the Boyson family, the Olson family, the McFarlan family, the Hanson family, and the Ronson family.

The list of individuals includes Jen Kaiser, Caleb Juvera, John Jacobson, Elise Lopez, Martin Horton, and Martha Brown.

The original motive for the attack is still unknown, but its speculated that this was an apartment wide robbery, the first in Gotham history.

More on this attack after the break. I'm Summer Gleason and you're watching Gotham News at 9.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey you guys, Im super sorry for such a long wait. Life has been crazy. First, I had camp for a week, then directly from that, I went to Colorado. Now, Im just about to move into college and rush for a sorority. Life is pretty busy and Im super sorry if this chapter is bad and seemed rushed and if it has a lot of errors :( Thanks again for reading! Feel free to comment, favorite, and follow! :)

December 10th, 2016

Life's rough. The last few years haven't been kind to Danielle. Nine of the ten foster homes that she was forced into here terrible, the couples didn't care for her at all. Most of them just wanted another kid to collect benefits off of. After the 10th home, Danielle decided that she'd had enough. Since she didn't really have many possessions in the first place, sneaking out of the tiny house that the government wanted her to call "home" was easy.

The night she left, it took her only 10 minutes to pack up all of her possessions, which included two complete outfits, a pair of shoes, which she wore on her feet, and the last family photo they took before they moved to Gotham. They were all packed up in a black backpack that CPS gave her when she first moved into the foster care system.

More than anything, she wished that she could go back. Back before she and her parents ever moved to Gotham. This place is cursed. Before, she thought Gotham City held promise, that it was a place that could make your dreams come true, but she was wrong. Gotham is a desolate place of despair where people have to face their nightmares every day. This place was Hell, her Hell.

It'd been a year and five months since Danielle took up new residence in the streets of Gotham. Luckily, she'd found a new place to stay for the time being, an old factory that used to manufacture shoes. It had all the basic things she needed, well, everything except heat, but she had found some old blankets that proved to be pretty warm during Gotham's winter. And she had found a pretty efficient way of getting a little money here and there. Of course, it wasn't the most honest way, but common, this is Gotham, there were worse things going on, and luckily for her, she had managed to stay under the radar for the time being. The last thing she wanted was to be found by the police and shoved back into another foster home, or worse, have Batman find her.

She'd heard rumors of what Batman and his sidekicks did to people. How they'd beat people till they were near death, rarely stopping to see if the person was actually guilty. Of course most of the time they were, but that's beside the point.

A few years had passed since the Essex Apartment Massacre, and people were building up more and more evidence that The Batman really did exist. Some people praised Batman for his good deeds. Some thought that he was some over glorified freak with too much power. Danielle didn't care though, she stopped caring about masked vigilantes a long time ago. If Batman were such a good hero, why didn't he save her parents. He didn't even try to help stop that massacre. From what she heard when she woke up in the hospital, he barely bothered to show up in the first place. Nothing angered her more than thinking about how she used to idolize those people. In her mind, he was just as bad as the murderers on the streets.

Sitting on the old mattress that she hauled up into the office of the factory, Danielle was deep in thought. In a few weeks she'd be 18. Most girls her age were wondering what kind of car they'd get, or what college they'll be attending next year. Danielle, on the other hand, was wondering if she'd survive another night.

A few days ago, she had come down with a bad cold, and the life of a street rat didn't have cold medicine in the budget. So on the old mattress she sat, curled up in any blanket she could possible find. It'd be her luck to get sick on the coldest week of the year.

Tonight was particularly bad for Danielle. She had nothing to eat for a two days and nothing to drink for about three. She knew she wouldn't last too much longer if she didn't get something to eat or drink, but she was way too sick to go outside, plus there was a bad storm that was going over the city, no one in their right mind would be outside.

A loud growl broke Dan's train of thought. This was going too far. She needed to get something to eat! Gathering up all her strength, she got up from the bed and walked to the window that looked over the city. Though the storm made it hard to see anything, a bright neon "OPEN" sigh was blinking across the street from the warehouse. Deciding that it was the only thing she could do, she grabbed her coat and all the money she had with her, which was about 7 dollars, and headed out the office doors. Creeping out the old warehouse was harder than she thought. She was really weak and if she moved too fast she'd get dizzy.

The old office was on the third floor and walking down three flights of stairs was incredibly hard, but with a little determination, she made it. With almost all of the strength she had left, Danielle slid the front door of the warehouse open. Stumbling outside, she shuffled across the sidewalk and on to the street.

The wind was whipping her hair everywhere and she could barely see anything, but she kept going. Pulling her old jacket tighter around her, she pushed on through the snow. The snow was deep, like 3 inches deep, and the strong wind didn't help anything, but eventually, she made it across.

The lights from inside the shop shone brightly through the storm, like a lighthouse on a foggy night. Sighing in relief, she waded up to the front door and pulled it open. A rush of warm air blew her hair back as she clumsily walked into the convenience store. There was a cashier at the counter, but other than that, the place was empty. This made it easier to get more than 7 dollars worth of food, Danielle thought devilishly.

She looked up and smiled kindly to the man at the counter and headed back to the cooler and took out 3 water bottles, but put one in her coat pocket. Then she walked over to the isle that held chips, candy, and other snacks. Deciding that it would be smart to have some protein, Danielle grabbed two small bags of trail mix, and put one in her pants pocket. Then she grabbed the cheapest bag of chips and headed to the counter.

As she put "all" the food on the counter, she pulled out the five dollar bill and two one dollar bills from her front shirt pocket. Before she handed the money to the man, she made sure to cough and to play up the theatrics.

Sniffling, she gave the man the money and he began to ring up all the items.

'So far so good.' She thought as she smirked to herself.

As the cashier was getting to the end of all the items, a large man walks out from the door behind the counter. He didn't even look at Danielle as he walked to the front door and loudly turned the lock. The man turned and faced Danielle, his facial expression was way less than pleased.

"We don't take kindly to little runts stealing from us." He said as he began to walk towards her. Glancing around, she looked for any way that this guy could have found her out. In the far corner of the shop was a security camera that was slightly concealed.

'Stupid. Stupid. Stupid' Danielle mentally scolder herself. As he began to inch closer, she began to panic.

She began to back up, but the cashier reached over the counter and grabbed her arm.

As he slowly advanced, he began to pop his knuckles and laughed darkly.

"Tell er' Steven, what we do to little low lives like er'." The big man said as he got closer and closer to Danielle.

The cashier behind the counter just laughed as Danielle tried to struggle from his grip. Lucky her, she was so weak that she couldn't get away. Even if she did, where would she go? Chances are these guys are faster than her, so a race to the front door is out. Any other ideas that she could come up with were just as useless.

"Look, I'm really sorry, ok? I just really needed food. I'll pay for all of it, I promise!" Danielle pleaded, desperately trying to rip out of her captor's rasp.

"Sorry kid," he said as he grabbed Danielle by the shoulders. "No second chances." He said as he brought his right fist back, ready to hit her with all his strength. Danielle cringed as she waited for the impact, but none ever came.

Instead, the front window of the shop suddenly exploded, sending glass fragments everywhere. Instantly, the large man turned, and as a result loosened his grip on Danielle's shoulder. Seeing this as her only chance, she ripped out of his grasp and quickly backed away from him. Strangely enough, he was too transfixed on whatever broke the window to bother with Danielle anymore. Once she was at a safe distance, Danielle peered around the big guy to see what exactly did break through the window.

Standing among a sea of broken glass stood a kid, a little younger than her. He had a look of determination set on his face. It was strange, she didn't recognize this costumed freak. He was wearing a red shirt and black pants, and his head was completely covered with a cowl that led down to his cape. He held a staff in his hand and took a defensive stance towards the bulky man that was about to assault her.

"Let's put the fist down tubby. We don't want to start this evening off with me kicking your butt, do we?" He said with a smirk.

At the snarky comment, the man charged at the teen, only to be dodged and punched square in the stomach. The man doubled over in pain and tried to regain his composure, only to receive a second blow from the teen to the back of the head, dropping him to the ground. The teen looked around and spotted the clerk behind the counter and advanced towards him.

"Hey, look, Red Robin," The clerk said as he raised his hands and began to back away. "I wasn't a part of this. I just, uh, was..uh.." he deadpanned as he quickly looked around for an escape route.

Deciding that the best place to be was anywhere but here, Danielle slowly inched her way behind some shelves and started to make her way towards the exit. She was half way there when she remembered her original purpose. Quietly, she grabbed two bags of chips and added it to the stash she already had in her pockets. She just made it to the busted out front window and decided it was now or never, and made a break for it. By all the luck in the universe, she made it out of the shop and into the streets. She made it half way into the street when she suddenly tripped.

Danielle landed in the snow with a hard 'thud' and looked down to see that some kind of wire was wrapped around her ankles. Just to add to her list of bad things, the water bottle in her pocket busted open and was slowly soaking her to the bone in this -10 degree weather.

The storm still made it white out conditions, so Danielle decided that maybe she could crawl away and that Red Robin, or whoever that creep was, wouldn't find her. She inched her towards the factory opening, trying as hard as she could to keep going. Out of the blue, a strong grip pulled her up from the snow and back into a standing position. When she regained her bearings, Danielle realized that she had become face to face with the teenage freak from the shop.

Deciding to bluff her way out, Danielle gave the vigilante a cheesy smile and said, "Uh, thanks for rescuing me back there. I don't know what got into those guys." She said with a shrug. As she put her arms back down, the trail mix bag just happened to ever so inconveniently fall out of her pocket and into the snow in between them. Her cheesy smile became a lot cheesier as blush made its way across her face, and a glare made its way across his.

Without a second thought, Red Robin sliced the cable around her ankle and grabbed Danielle by the arm and led her to the side walk. After he forced her to sit on the curb, he radioed Batman alerting him to the situation. Hearing this, Danielle's blood ran cold. Colder than she already was even though she was soaking wet in -10 degree weather. Panicking, she looked up to Red Robin and pleaded, "Seriously, I'm sorry. I won't ever do it again. I had no other option. I was gonna starve!" She shouted and she began to feel tears build up in her eyes. If there was one thing she didn't want, it was to ever see Batman, especially since she was on the wrong side of the law.

Leaning forward, Red Robin spoke, "What's your name?"

This made her panic even more. If she was caught, that meant that she'd be taken to the police. If she was taken to the police, they'd find out who she really was. If the police found out who she really was, they'd send her back to another foster home! Or worst, prison. She was almost 18, old enough to know that she did wrong. She was doomed.

"Look, I…I can't tell you that." She said, as she made eye contact with the masked 'hero'.

Red Robin tilted his head to the side as he analyzed her body language. He decided to continue with the questions till Batman got there.

"How old are you?" He asked.

Danielle just continued to stare at her badly worn shoes. This made Red Robin even more curious.

"Where are your parents?" He asked. That question seemed to hit a nerve since he could see the young girl visibly cringe at his inquiry.

Since he still received no reply, he decided to ask a follow up question.

"Are you an orphan, or a runaway?" She showed no emotion to this question, so he assumed that she could quite possibly be both. Smirking to himself, he continued to piece together this mysterious girl's identity. She didn't know that by not saying anything, she said everything.

She was obviously a teenager, judging by her face but not her height since she was about 5"2. She was wearing old looking clothes, so he guessed that orphan was a good choice, but also sided with runaway as well since she refused to tell him her name or age. Unfortunately, the list of missing blonde girls in Gotham are pretty long, but with all the information that he had calculated, he figured Batman could find out who she was in a matter of seconds.

The wind had picked up and made things feel even colder, and being soaked, made Danielle start to shiver. To top that, she started coughing heavily and tears were starting to fall from her eyes. This day was absolutely terrible. First, she had a really bad cold. Second, she got caught stealing and was probably going to get thrown in jail. And, third, she was going to have to get taken to the police by none other than the big, bad, Bat.

After a few more seconds, a loud thud was heard a few feet away from where Danielle was sitting and where Red Robin was standing beside her. She didn't need to look up to know what it was. She continued to look down and rub her arms to try to keep warm. The water that was previously soaking her had turned to ice, and she was pretty sure her lips had turned blue.

The sound of crunching snow came closer to Danielle as she just sat there and continued shivering. As the pair of black boots came into her view, she decided that now would be a good time to look up.

Slowly, Danielle raised her down cast head to gaze upon the giant figure in front of her. She figured she probably looked pathetic. Tears were streaming down her face, her nose was running, and she was certain her lips were blue by now. All that on top of the fact that she looked like some street rat.

Danielle was only able to hold his gaze for a second and then returned her view back to her feet. She could tell that he was still looking at her, analyzing her. He probably had already figured out who she was by now. This only made Danielle cry more, but she managed to keep it at a quiet level. The last thing she wanted was to get shoved into a foster home or a jail cell. Out of nowhere, Danielle became comfortably warm. Confused, she lifter her head and saw that some kind of black fabric had been draped over her in an attempt to keep her warm.

Breaking away from her thoughts, she looked up at Batman and observed that he was now capeless. Without even sparing her another look, Batman turned to Red Robin.

"Take care of her till Jim gets here." He said emotionlessly. Nodding in response, Red Robin moved back beside Danielle and waited with her till the GCPD arrived.


End file.
